What is art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What is art - Essay Example This is what can be defined as aesthetics. These two dominant roles are meant to complement and balance each other in any artwork. Any artwork is said to have a hidden function that often helps educate people about nature and help them fulfill the emotions and spiritual needs of human beings. Therefore form complements functionality by following emotions and adding aesthetic appeal. However some school of thoughts has claimed that art is predominantly defined by aesthetics. Art is not about understanding a piece of work, therefore if one cannot read the contents in a piece does not mean that they cannot appreciate it. Symbolism or iconography both entails identification and interpretation of the subject matter in any artwork. Appreciating a piece of art requires an open mind thereby leaving it open to interpretation and thus lies the beauty in it.in a piece that is not easily understandable or readable, beauty is derived from the creation of visual experience or basically its aesthetic form. Plato described art as an imitation of nature. This means an artist is influenced and driven by elements of nature. Art according to the definition can be influenced by many factors such as experience, imagination and even imitation. Creativity consist of the ability to combine ideas in a unique way and make a useful association; it comes from human imagination as well as outside forces like nature and experiences and creates originality.Creativity and imitation are mutually exclusive in that creativity can also inspired by other peoples work. Imitation in art is as a result of a connection between the original artist and the imitator; the imitator may try to show a certain side and expression that was not in a piece of work originally. Imitation therefore is influenced by originality thus a form of art in itself. Imitation has been used by many influential artists to restore damaged artefacts like Apollo statuette (Richter 204), imitation is a key to survival of art and it